The present invention relates to interior panels adapted to be spread over the floor, foundation, or slab of an office room or computer room to form the room floor and, more specifically, to interior panels permitting an arrangement of power cables, signal transmission cables, and electric devices between the room floor and the slab.
With the progress of microelectronics, office rooms have recently come to be furnished with a number of office-automation apparatuses. Presently, moreover, what is called a local area network is being developed which connects these office-automation apparatuses. The local area network is a system for high-speed data communications of, e.g., 10 Mbit/sec between a plurality of work stations, a large-capacity filing system, and a large-capacity printing system. In order to form such a local area network, therefore, it is necessary to connect the work stations and the large-capacity filing and printing systems by means of signal transmission cables such as coaxial cables or optical fiber cables. Also, the office-automation apparatuses need to be connected with power cables for electric power supply. Accordingly, in an office room provided with the local area network, as in a conventional computer room, the signal transmission cables and power cables are stretched in all directions around the space between the office floor and the floor slab, and couplers, transceivers, modems and other electric devices connecting the signal transmission cables and the individual office-automation apparatuses, along with electric devices connected to the power cables, are arranged in accordance with the layout of the apparatuses.
In laying the signal transmission cables and power cables in an office room, they are legally required to avoid contact with one another. It is, therefore, very difficult to properly arrange the signal transmission cables and power cables in offices with the local area network.
In the offices, moreover, there may frequently arise the need for changing the layout of office-automation apparatuses or installing addition office-automation apparatuses. In this case, rearrangement of the signal transmission cables and power cables would conventionally require large-scale construction job, rendering the layout of the office-automation apparatuses less readily adaptable.